Dianne Bondy

Dianne Bondy

Dianne Bondy is a celebrated yoga teacher, social justice activist, and leading voice of the Yoga for All movement. Her inclusive view of yoga asana and philosophy inspires and empowers thousands of followers around the world—regardless of their shape, size, ethnicity, or level of ability. She applies over 1,000 hours of training to help her students find freedom, self-expression, and radical self-love in their yoga practice. Dianne contributes to Yoga International, Yoga Journal, Do You Yoga, and Elephant Journal and is the author of the book Yoga for Everyone: 50 Poses for Every Type of Body.

Dianne Bondy

Dianne Bondy is a celebrated yoga teacher, social justice activist, and leading voice of the Yoga for All movement. Her inclusive view of yoga asana and philosophy inspires and empowers thousands of followers around the world—regardless of their shape, size, ethnicity, or level of ability. She applies over 1,000 hours of training to help her students find freedom, self-expression, and radical self-love in their yoga practice. Dianne contributes to Yoga International, Yoga Journal, Do You Yoga, and Elephant Journal and is the author of the book Yoga for Everyone: 50 Poses for Every Type of Body.

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GUIDES

Appreciating Our Bodies

The following is an excerpt from

Yoga Where You Are

By Dianne Bondy and Kat Heagberg Rebar

Yoga Where You Are

Yoga Where You Are

$24.95 - Paperback

By: Dianne Bondy & Kat Heagberg Rebar

Yoga and Body Image

The most important step in appreciating our bodies is to meet ourselves where we are.

As yoga teachers, we can create a truly inclusive yoga class by coming to understand and appreciate different body types and abilities and by learning how to adapt a pose and a practice to fit different kinds of bodies. We can share inspiration from, and promote the work of, a diverse range of teachers. We can focus on encouraging students to come to the mat and accepting where they are in their own practice. We can recognize that some students come to the mat with a genetic privilege, and we can celebrate that all bodies are yoga bodies.

Many of these ideas also apply to our personal practice. We can work on identifying the stories we tell ourselves about our worth, power, or beauty—on and off the mat. We can begin to question the negative stories, and we can begin to celebrate where we are in our lives and in our practice, regardless of how it looks. We can look for teachers and media that highlight accessibility and acceptance. We can focus on coming to the mat for any amount of time, and we can know that we don’t need to change to find benefit.

The Health at Every Size (HAES) movement makes the powerful claim that we can be healthy people regardless of how our bodies look. Their website (www.haescommunity.com) is a wonderful resource for learning about how to respect every body, challenge our assumptions, find compassionate self-care practices, and work for justice. Other groups, such as the Yoga and Body Image Coalition, are active in trying to change the dominant narrative around yoga and health, and they also offer excellent resources.

We don’t need to overcome our bodies—we need to overcome our attachment. What if we could overcome our attachment to diet culture, the beauty industry, and celebrity culture? What might we be capable of if we began to view our bodies with satisfaction instead of distrust?

At its core, attachment is based on fear and insecurity. When you forget your true Self—which the yoga tradition tells us is pure consciousness, pure potentiality—you begin to believe that you need something outside of yourself in order to achieve happiness.

And yet, you don’t. You are worthy just as you are.

You might consider these questions on your journey:

  • The first step in accepting our bodies is letting go of our attachment to beauty and perfection as defined by our culture. What if we saw all bodies as equal regardless of color, size, and gender?
  • Do we see yoga as an individual pursuit or as something that fosters connection to each other?
  • Can we start to integrate our own yoga and mindfulness practices with the collective work of social justice?
  • In our self-study, can we recognize our own bias and explore how it affects our lives and the world around us?
  • How do we engage with others who are different from us?
  • If we see yoga as unity, how can we serve our communities—either through working with local organizations or with larger groups like the Yoga Service Council?

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About the Authors of Yoga Where You Are

Dianne BondyDianne Bondy is a celebrated yoga teacher, social justice activist, and leading voice of the Yoga for All movement. Her inclusive view of yoga asana and philosophy inspires and empowers thousands of followers around the world—regardless of their shape, size, ethnicity, or level of ability. Learn More.

Kat HeagbergKat Heagberg is editor-in-chief of Yoga International and has been teaching yoga regularly since 2005. Her Yoga International video classes and workshops are consistently among the top viewed each month. Learn More.

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On Practicing Yoga

A Foreword to Get Your Yoga On

Get Your Yoga On

I started practicing yoga when I was very young. My mom found Be Young with Yoga by Richard L. Hittleman at a used book sale in 1967 and decided to try it. When she introduced me to the practice, it felt natural and fun. Throughout my life, yoga has helped me navigate the world as a black woman in a plus-sized body. The world has always been interested in my physical appearance, and I have never measured up to popular culture’s standards.

My yoga practice changed how I saw myself in the world and showed me how I could influence consciousness on a much larger scale.

As yoga became increasingly popular in the West, this ancient and powerful eight-limbed practice was reduced to the physical postures. It idealized practitioners who aligned with the Western beauty ideal: white, able-bodied, conventionally attractive, and thin. There seemed to be no place for people of color, elders, the less affluent, disabled bodies, or people in larger bodies. Yoga had become an exclusive club. This was very different from the yoga practice I loved, which focused on creating connection, contentment, harmony, and inclusiveness in the world.

Simultaneously, yoga’s guru principle—a traditional system where a master teacher is the sole authority for a specific yoga lineage—resulted in many abuses of power. Disguised as surrendering to the practice of yoga, practitioners were encouraged to surrender their autonomy and agency to the guru. People were harmed across many lineages and styles of yoga. These situations gave rise to a shift in how we share, teach, and experience yoga: the power of yoga resides within the student and not the teacher.

As modern yoga culture continues to grow, it is adapting to include our evolving ideas around agency, consent, accessibility, inclusion, and adaptability.

We are moving away from the idea that there is one way to practice yoga.

To paraphrase one of my favorite modern yogis, Colin Hall, yoga teacher and professor of religious studies at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, “It is the very nature of humanity to adapt, so one can argue yoga’s evolution to an accessible, adaptable practice is what is traditional.”

We must be clear about our intentions for practicing. Yoga needs to be more about how we show up in the world and create equity, equality, accessibility, and justice for all bodies and less about beautifully curated pictures on social media. This practice of yoga needs to be about all of us regardless of our size, shape, age, ability, color, or gender identity.

Representation matters in yoga as much as it does in other areas of our lives.

Throughout this book you will be guided by Kino’s masterful understanding of Ashtanga yoga along with my interpretation of the practice for larger and nonconforming bodies. You will be encouraged to exercise your own sense of agency and autonomy within the practice. Get Your Yoga On will give you the tools to decide how you want to customize your practice to represent the individual needs of your body. We encourage you to explore your body as a vessel for joy, movement, and enlightenment.

Yoga changed my life. It taught me how to be kind, empathic, compassionate, and content. It also taught me how to be powerful, discerning, and inclusive in my words, actions, and view of the world. Yoga cracked my heart wide open. It can do the same for you. Yoga can be your gateway to a better understanding of your body and your world.

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